As shown in Step 6: Box Assembly, I used a high-quality wood varnish which also acts as a sealent. By applying a few coats, it becomes highly water repellant & makes the MDF resistant to moisture and humidity.

2 Lucky winners will win an Instructables Pro Subscription.All you need to do is Subscribe to me on Instructables & YouTube and Leave a comment letting me know what you want me to make next.If you have any doubts/questions feel free to ask them below.All Code, Schematics & Design Files are available at the GitHub Repository.

Calibrating your circuit to sense the correct moisture levels be a pain. You will need to select the correct resistor based on the threshold level of moisture which you will have to decide upon.Instead, buy a soil moisture sensor and an Arduino Nano. You will be able to add several other sensors which can measure temperature and humidity too. Arduino is a great platform to start learning about microcontrollers and electronics. You will also find several online tutorials for your project. Instructables has Arduino and Electronics Classes which will help you get started.

I wouldn't recommend connect the two batteries in series. The series voltage may exceed the maximum supply voltage of the motor thereby damaging the motor.Connecting the batteries in parallel will increase the run time.

It would be cool if Contest Winners got a Skill Badge Sticker.For example: Winners of the Halloween Contest could get the Instructables Logo dressed up as a Vamp/Dracula(the picture is from there Halloween Postcard 2017 Blog).On second thought, it would be very time consuming(probably expensive too) for the Instuctables Team to create distinct stickers for each contest.

If I were to list Instructables on my Linkedin profile, which 'Title' should I use?Author, Technical Writer, Electronics Creator, Maker, Member? What would be the appropriate title for Instructables members?

+1. Certificates would really help document our achievements on Instructables. An E-Certificate could also be added to Linkedin profiles. Certificates could be made for both Conest Winners & Classes. It should also include the contest partners/prize providers too.

Any chance I could get a remote internship. Still in college & on the other side of the world. Love making stuff.Work Experience: Embedded System Design, IoT& PCB Design.Skills: ARM Programming, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Eagle, KiCAD, MATLAB.My Github for more projects: https://github.com/jonathanrjpereiraYou can also check out my Instructables for my project experience.

I'm using grbl for my CNC as the G-code parser/ motion controller. Typically the Z- axis is where the milling/drill/laser/pen tool is attached and it typically moves in the vertical/up-down direction. I recommend using grbl it provides a lot of flexibility & is free.

I was in the process of making a CNC(Assignment Writing Bot). Ran out of time before I could finish the 2nd & 3rd axes. Since my CNC didn't have a milling/drilling tool, I did not require motors with a lot of holding torque(almost no backlash). I used a Sparkfun EasyDriver and also their 15$ stepper motors.Considering you want to mill & cut aluminum your probably going need motors with higher holding torque & a low stepping angle

I haven't tried using Neopixels as they are pretty expensive here in India. Although it's a great alternative if you want to create a specific lighting sequence as each LED is individually addressable.

I guess I could. But the Beaglebone Black is way more expensive than the RasPi.

I haven't used/own a NodeMCU. It looks very promising in terms of specifications & cost. It's one of the boards that I'm planning to make Lumos compatible with. If you have any experience with the NodeMCU let me know or even try contributing on GitHub.